Thomas Alva Edison (1847 - 1931) - Inventor
Education:
As a young boy, Edison was constantly asking people "how
does this thing work?" Due to his persistent questioning, his school teacher lost
patience with him and his mother
was forced to withdraw him from school at age 7. His
mother then began to teach him herself - homeschooling
Thomas.
At the age of 12, he left schooling behind completely and spent the rest of his life
teaching himself and inventing things for other people.
Employment:
At age 12, Edison's first job was selling newspapers,
vegetables, snacks, and candy on the local railroad. He then decided to begin writing his
very own newspaper called "The Weekly Herald", which he published and sold to
passengers on the trains. It was the first ever newspaper to be printed and sold on a
moving train.
At age 14, he learned to be a telegraph operator. He was interested in the equipment he
used in this job, and was always studying and experimenting ways to improve it. The
experience he gained from this job lead him to produce his first patented invention in
1868. He subsequently quit telegraphy to become a full-time inventor.
Experiences:
When he was young, Edison contracted scarlet fever and became 80% deaf in one ear and totally deaf in the other. He used the silence that came with his deafness to increase his power of concentration.
Edison had very little schooling when he was a child and was mainly self-taught.
Edison's work as a telegraper was what got him interested in the field of electrical engineering.
As a telegrapher, Edison liked to experiment with equipment to figure out how everything worked. However, he was fired from many jobs because he often preferred to concentrate on his own interests rather than working.
After becoming a full-time inventer, Edison's had many
spectalur inventions. Just some of these include:
an electrical vote recorder, the automatic telegraph, the typewriter, the carbon telephone
transmitter, the phonograph, the light bulb, galvanic batteries, and the electric motor.
Opportunities:
Whilst at a train station, Edison saved the station master's child from being hit by a train. As a way of thanking him, the station master taught Edison how to use Morse code and the telegraph.
Edison left home to work as a telegrapher at a prestigious Western Union Company in Boston.
With no job and no money, Edison walked off the street and was able to fix a broken down stock-ticker for a finance company. He was given a job at the company and later he invented his own stock ticker. A corporation paid him $40,000 for some of his patent rights to this invention.
Edison became business partners with some of richest people in New York, J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts. Together they formed the Edison Electric Light Company, which is now known as General Electric.
Edison got to exchange ideas with such people as Charles Lindberg, Marie Curie, Graham Bell, Henry Ford, and President Herbert Hoover.
Training:
Apart from being trained to become a telegrapher, Edison received very little formal training. He was mainly self taught and was interested in experimenting with new things on his own.
Links:
Thomas Edison's Home
Page
Thomas Edison: Library of
Congress
Edisonian Museum
The Edison & Ford Winter Estates
Thomas Edison's
Invention Web
Thomas Alva Edison: The ACCESS INDIANA
Teaching & Learning Center
Thomas Edison - Biography (lots of questions at the end!)
Invention of
the Phonograph
How Christmas Lights
Work
Are fluorescent bulbs really more efficient than normal light bulbs? If they are, why?
| Did You Know? Edison founded 14 companies, one of which, General Electrics is one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. Due to his many inventions, Edison is credited with holding 1,093 patents and is the only person to have a patent every year for 65 consecutive years. Edison was voted Life magazine's "Number One Man of the Millennium" When he was young, Edison's love of Shakespeare lead him to seriously consider becoming an actor. When Thomas Edison died on October 18th, 1931 (age 84), at the time of his burial, many communities throughout the world dimmed their lights to pay their respects to the great inventor. |
Material sourced from
The Edison & Ford Winter Estates
Thomas Edison's Home Page
Thomas Edison's Adventure Web
Wikipedia - Thomas Alva Edison
